Game Recap: Stars 7, Wild 2

DALLAS -- Nils Lundkvist had a goal and an assist, and the Dallas Stars spoiled Minnesota Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt’s NHL debut with a 7-2 win at American Airlines Center on Wednesday.

“Feels good to get the first one. Good to get the first one out of the way. Took me a while, but better now than never,” Lundkvist said of his first goal of the season in his 30th game.

Esa Lindell had three assists, and Mason Marchment had two assists for the Stars (24-11-5), who won both games of a home-and-home set against the Wild by a combined score of 11-2 (4-0 at Minnesota on Monday). Scott Wedgewood made 21 saves.

“I held onto the first four or five [shots] that I needed to,” Wedgewood said. “Same thing as the game two nights ago -- early surge and make a couple of saves. We jump out to a lead, and we did a good job holding it. They got a bounce on a 5-on-3. It’s just a good win. We’re happy with it.”

Matt Boldy had a goal and an assist, and Wallstedt made 27 saves for the Wild (17-19-4), who have lost six of their past seven games.

Wallstedt, 21, was a first-round pick (No. 20) at the 2021 NHL Draft.

“I was definitely nervous in the beginning,” Wallstedt said. “I had a lot of pucks just bouncing off me. Didn’t feel like I could catch anything. I remember there was one shot from their [defense], and I tried to glove it and it just jumped out of my hand. The nerves were definitely hitting me early. After that, I felt more and more comfortable.

"At the end, it definitely ran away a little bit. I feel like I could have made a couple of better saves there to keep us in the game that maybe could have turned the tide a little bit.”

Joe Pavelski gave Dallas a 1-0 lead at 16:45 of the first period with a shot from inside the right face-off circle.

“I thought there were times early in the game where we couldn’t get the goal or get the momentum going, where we did have some looks," Minnesota coach John Hynes said. "Even right after they scored the goal, we had a look before that and right after that. There were moments in the game where you need to score at a certain time when you have looks, and we didn’t have that, particularly early in the game.”

Matt Duchene made it 2-0 at 4:28 of the second period when he converted a bounce off the end boards in front.

“You look at the three games we lost, other than the Colorado game (5-4 in overtime last Thursday), I think in those two combined losses to Nashville (4-3 on Jan. 6) and Montreal (4-3 on Jan. 2), I think we gave up 40 shots in two games. You usually win those games,” Duchene said. “We’ve had great goaltending. We’ve got a little bit of everything right now. The three-game skid didn’t really feel like it should have been a three-game skid, and now we’re kind of getting rewarded.”

Roope Hintz made it 3-0 at 14:59, finishing off a cross-ice pass from Marchment.

The Stars outshot the Wild 16-3 in the second.

“We’ve been concentrating on [defense]. We need to play that way in front of our goaltenders to give ourselves a chance here,” Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We’ve risen to the occasion. It helps them not having some of the guys they have out of the lineup, but our commitment was pretty good tonight that way.”

Boldy cut it to 3-1 at 4:22 of the third period when he deflected a point shot by Brock Faber.

Jason Robertson gave Dallas a 4-1 lead at 8:05 with a shot from the left face-off circle on a 2-on-1, and Lundkvist shot from the high slot to make it 5-1 at 9:26.

“We played a good team, but they really didn’t have to work too hard to get the goals in,” Minnesota forward Mats Zuccarello said. “I gave away the first one. It happens, but we didn’t bounce back, and we had some chances where we could have gotten some bounces and some goals and build a game there. We played a solid third period, and they still got three goals. They got some bounces, and they’re a good team. If you give them chances, they are going to score.

"It’s not a performance that we like. We have to play smarter hockey.”

Ryan Hartman cut it to 5-2 with a one-timer during a 5-on-3 power play at 11:03, but Tyler Seguin made it 6-2 at 16:10 with a shot from above the right face-off dot.

Sam Steel scored on a rebound at 18:17 for the 7-2 final.

“We didn’t generate really anything on our forecheck. We made a gameplan to get pucks behind them, and they just continuously [chipped] it past us and sent guys out of the zone and created odd-man rushes,” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton said. “We didn’t adjust properly as a group throughout the game, and that kind of led to where we are at right now.”

NOTES: Wallstedt (21 years, 57 days) became the youngest goaltender in Wild history, surpassing Derek Gustafson, who made his debut March 9, 2001, at 21 years, 261 days -- 20 months before Wallstedt was born. Wallstedt is the youngest goalie in the NHL this season. Teammate Marc-Andre Fleury is the oldest goaltender in the League (39). … Pavelski (1,290 games played) passed Mathieu Schneider for eighth on the NHL all-time list among United States-born players. Pavelski has scored against 150 different goalies during the regular season in his career, trailing 12 players in NHL history and only one active player (Alex Ovechkin, who ranks third with 172). … Dallas has outscored Minnesota 19-5 in three games this season (3-0-0). It extended its point streak against the Wild to 10 games dating to Dec. 20, 2021 (7-0-3). … The Stars became the first team this season to have at least four players with 15 goals (Hintz, Pavelski, Seguin and Robertson). ... Dallas defenseman Ryan Suter had an assist and was plus-4 in 18:32 of ice time.